Things I Do: Write Stuff About Things

It’s Monday night and luckily there’s nothing on TV that I watch or that I write about. Sooooo, I’m going to write about some other things not related to pop-culture or TV. Tonight, I’ll plop down at my writing desk, finish off this Americano, pick out some non-intrusive music, finish this blog entry about nothing, and then get to writing about new home construction, motivation and delegation, and if there’s time, I’ll help audition to write and edit a fitness ebook.

This isn’t the life of a best-selling author, but hopefully I’m making connections and building an audience so that when I do write my first book, everyone will be excited about it and say things like, “I’ve always liked the stuff he writes.”

The thing is, I enjoy it. I enjoy jumping from topic to topic and trying to top myself and put myself into a frame of mind to write for a specific audience.

Am I in a position to offer writing advice? Hardly. But sometimes people ask about writing and getting started and I tell them what I know …basically, I don’t know if there’s one path to getting started. The cool thing is, since there isn’t “one path”, you can sometimes invent your own. Like, if you want to be a lawyer, you have to go to college, study pre-law, then go onto law school, then get into a law firm, and go from there. Same if you want to be a surgeon …or a pilot. However, if you want to be a writer …you just write. And you can try this, and try that, and if you don’t like that, try something new.

Side note …I’m glad pilots and surgeons don’t have the option of dabbling.

But once you start, all I can advise is …find a voice. Sometimes, your client might not want your Shakespearean sense of prose and style, and sometimes they won’t want your sarcasm or your set-up and punchline, but that’s OK. Sometimes you’ll just need to write something straight …which is great practice.

So, that’s my advice …write. Look on Craigslist for someone looking for writing. Write for them. Keep good track of your time and your articles so you have a nice resume to show people.